


Rainbow Disorder

by genderneutralnoun



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Adorable baby dragons, Autism Awareness, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gen, Glory is an amazing dragon fjvlsiwlaigds, I wanted to write this in the month of April but I'm impatient, This happens after all the lovely stuff that happens due to Moon Rising
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-13 01:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7956769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genderneutralnoun/pseuds/genderneutralnoun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange little dragonet is brought to the queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Her name

“Queen Glory!” A messenger flew over to the platform, landing neatly next to her.

“What is it?” she said politely. She had just been about to start work on some more scrolls, but she could see this was one of the ones who got upset if they had to wait too long.

“Violet is bringing a troublesome dragonet they can’t punish themselves,” the messenger stated officiously. “Details will be given by her.”

“Got it,” Glory curled up her tail beside her and sat down. “I’ve got time. Go do whatever you were doing before.” 

The messenger leapt away into the jungle after a bow, to be replaced almost comically fast by Violet carrying a female dragonet who looked barely one year old.

“Your Majesty,” Violet bowed so deeply that his snout touched the floor. “I present this dragonet, who has been-”

Stifling a  _ Spare me _ , Glory instead said, more politely, “Please, Violet, just tell me what she has been doing.”

Violet stood up, not without an annoyed “sniff. “Very well. The dragonet is very strange. She almost never talks, and doesn’t play with the others very much. When she does play, she only ever talks about things that wants to talk about, which is of course very selfish. And she overreacts to the littlest things. We’ve tried disiplining her the best ways we know but she doesn't respond to it. Obviously there’s something wrong with her.”

Glory saw the dragonet flinch. It was studiously hidden, but Glory knew a concealed wince when she saw one. “There’s nothin’ wrong with me,” the dragonet protested, but there was a quaver at the end, as if it was more a question then a statement

Anger rose up in Glory like a certain very-much-dead-now NightWing coming up out of lava. “Wow,” she said scathingly. “That is a  _ horrible  _ thing to say to a one-year-old dragonet. I want to hear her side of the story. No, Violet. I will NOT calm down. This deserves being angry at.”

She turned to the dragonet, who scooted away from her at the sight of the red flames shooting through her ruff. “I’m not angry at you,” she said kindly, mentally quenching the red and replacing it with a curious gold-yellow. “I’m angry at this turtle-poop-brain who thinks it’s okay to treat a little dragon like dirt.” The dragonet giggled. Violet looked affronted.

“Anyway,” Glory leaned down so she could been eye level with the younger RainWing. “What’s he saying? What do you think the problem is?”

The dragonet stared at her talons. “I don’ like other dragons,” she said quietly. “They too loud and fast. They get too close to me and don’t listen when I trys to tell them about my story. So I sit far away from them. And I hum in class because it helps me focus, and the teachers yell at me, but when I don’t hum I can’t learn. And everything is too loud and bright and smelly and I don’t like it when they get angry because I can feel it. It feel like a big bubble coming out from them and pressing up against me.”

The dragonet looked up at Glory. “But I don’t know why you want me to tell you because no one believes me.”

There was a pause as the dragonet looked at Glory, Glory looked at Violet, and Violet shifted uncomfortably without knowing why. “Well,  _ I  _ believe you,” Glory said calmly. “After all, what reason would you have to lie?”

“Many reasons,” Violet broke in. “She could get away with disrupting the class- get out of work-”

“ _ I  _ don’t think that she wants to be labeled as ‘having something worng with her’ anymore than you do,” Glory said pleasantly. “What do you think?”

Violet opened and closed his mouth a few times. “ _ Well, _ ” he said at last, “You can’t possibly expect me to believe something as- as  _ ludicrous- _ ”

“That’s quite enough.” Glory settled back on her haunches. “You have just proven to me that this dragonet does not deserve to be in a school that will treat her this way.”

“Then what will you do with her?” he challenged. “No one else believes her.”

“I’ll raise her myself,”  _ Deathbringer is going to be off the wall, _ her mind added. “I think I can handle one dragonet.

“But you’re the-”

“Queen, which means I make the rules, and I say that this dragonet stays with me.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’ll be begging for us to take her back soon.” He squinted down at her. “Not that we’ll be thrilled when you do.”

Glory had had enough. “Stop making snide remarks and go back to your school, for goodness’ sake,” she said exasperatedly.

Not without grumbling, Violet flew off into the trees.

The queen of the RainWings sighed and looked at her new charge. “Well, what’s your name, little one?” she asked.

The dragonet paused. “I don’t like it,” she said nervously. 

“Well, if you don’t like it, then you can change it.”

The little RainWing tilted her head, then: “Rainbow. My name is now Rainbow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you don't know, Autism Spectrum Disorder is a mental condition- well, not really a condition. It's weird. It's very different for everyone who has it (which is why it's called a spectrum disorder), but the most common staples of it are 1. it can be really hard for you to learn "regular" social norms 2. your sense are more finely tuned then most everyone else, i.e., lights seem brighter, noises are louder, and when there's too much going on all at once you can get a scary thing called sensory overload, where your brain gets overwhelmed and can't process all the extra data, so more just keeps flooding in and snowballing. It's a not a fun experience.  
> If you have any questions, just ask me in the comments.  
> Oh, and before all you sexists come in yelling that only boys can have autism, I am talking to you as a girl with autism. Yeeeeeah.
> 
> Oh yeah. There will definitely be more chapters to this.


	2. A new home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back. Are you happy?

That night, Rainbow sniffed all over the house, getting to know every nook and cranny. She got along very well with Silver, and ran her claws through the sloth’s fur almost obsessively. When asked why, she said, “It feel good. Soft things make me better when I feel uncomfortable.” She pronounced the last word with careful precision, then beamed with pride. “I like big words. I read lots, and I like to try out the big words out loud.” As if it reminded her of a bad memory, she kicked at the ground, ducking her head. “Sometimes they say I say things wrong. But I’m not. I say them how they spelled.”

“Words can be very confusing,” Glory agreed. “Not all of them follow the same rules.”

“I know!” the dragonet crowed triumphantly. “But why don’t they? They just say they do because they do. I think they just don’t know either.”

“I don’t know as well.” Glory lowered her head to be on the same level as the littler dragon. “But if I don’t ever know something, I promise I will just tell you outright, okay?”

Rainbow beamed, pink bubbles of happiness cutting away the anxious green tinge that had come from being in such an unfamiliar place. As this happened, the sound of wingbeats came from outside, and a familiar black head poked into the house.

“I’m baaaack,” Deathbringer announced in a singsong voice. Rainbow’s ears twitched toward her head, a sign that Glory had already come to recognize as meaning something was too loud.

“Not so loud, you,” she berated.

“Love you too,” he said happily. Seeing the RainWing dragonet, he grinned at her, making the green that had reappeared fade again slightly. “Who’s this? I thought you didn’t want dragonets.”

“This is a special case. Glory sat down, and Rainbow sat down with her, mimicking her movements exactly.  _ That’s strange. Going to have to ask her about it. _ “Her teachers were mistreating her.” An angry shade of red shot through her ruff, as well as a few green dots from a resurfaced memory which she hastily buried. (The green, not the red. It was perfectly acceptable to be angry at what happened.)

The row of spines down the NightWing’s back raised up in surprise. “A RainWing mistreating a dragonet?” he said in surprise. “I wouldn’t think most of them have it in them.”

“It’s…” Glory glanced at the dragonet, who was looking at them with wide eyes. “Complicated. Why don’t I introduce you two first. Rainbow, this is Deathbringer, my…” She looked hard at the big NightWing, who wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. Making a mental note to show him what she thought of him later (as she didn’t want to scare Rainbow) she continued “Bodyguard. He’s very goofy for a bodyguard, though, so don’t think of him as a star model or anything. Deathbringer, this is Rainbow, as you can probably guess. She doesn’t like loud noises, bright lights, or big smells. So make your greetings more quiet and don’t track anything weird into the house.”

“I can do that.” The NightWing’s big, rambunctious nature softened slightly as he crouched down to Rainbow’s level. Glory had noticed that Deathbringer seemed to have a soft side when it came to young dragonets. “Well, hello there, Rainbow. I’m Deathbringer, and I’m very pleased to be your friend.”

Rainbow cocked her head slightly. “Friend?” she asked. “I can be friends with a big dragon?”

“Yes, you can,” Deathbringer replied. “I promise I’ll be your friend, and I’ll protect you from harm, too, just like I do for Queen Glory.”

“She my friend too?”

“Yes.” Glory subconsciously felt her scales turn a rosy pink, but didn’t stop it like she usually would have. “We’re all your friends. And one day you’ll get to meet some of our other friends, and they can be your friends too.”

“Friends!” The dragonet leapt up happily, fluttering her wings slightly and making her jump last longer. “I never had a friend before. Now I have two, and lots more soon.” With a snap change, Rainbow’s tail drooped and she flopped on the floor, belly down and limbs spread out. “I tired now.”

Glory and Deathbringer laughed. “Alright. Time for sleep.” Deathbringer reached out to pick her up, but Glory stopped him.

“Is it okay is Deathbringer picks you up?” 

Rainbow nodded sleepily. Deathbringer reached out the rest of the way and picked her up with both talons, and draped her over one arm while using the other for walking.

Using that method of transportation, Rainbow was brought to a room that was used for storage. With promises of cleaning it out in the morning, the little dragonet was settled into a nest of leaves and was sound asleep.

“Now.” Deathbringer sat down decisively as soon as the were back in the room they were in earlier. “Tell me. How complicated it this?”

And so Glory had the happy task of explaining what Rainbow had told her when Violet brought her, and anything else the older RainWing had noticed during that day. Deathbringer nodded every now and again, paying careful attention- something quite rare for him.

At the end of her explanation, Glory sighed slightly. “Well? What do you think?”

Deathbringer scrunched up his snout. “It reminds me of something,” he said slowly. “I can’t remember exactly. You’d have to ask Mastermind- or ask Starflight to talk to him.”

“Maybe. That’s not the point, though. I meant, are you going to help her?”

“Oh, oh, of course. I thought that was obvious.”

“Good. I’d hate to have to separate you two. She’d come first, you know.”

Deathbringer brought up a comically hurt face. “Awwww.” 

Resisting the urge to laugh, Glory sighed instead, but turned into quite the interesting noise as she half-laughed in the middle of it and nearly choked. “Ahem. Excuse me. I do mean it, though. If she’s sensing everything we sense at a higher, unfiltered input, then, well, we need to help her. First of all, learn the signs that mean she’s getting stressed. Then we’re going to help her learn herself how to know when she needs to leave, and how to do it not-rudely. That’s not as much of a worry in the RainWing village- you know how they are- but if she’s being with the other tribes, or at Jade Mountain…” Glory trailed off.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Deathbringer sat up a little bit straighter. “Well, we can plan that in the morning. Right now we should make like Rainbow and sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Glory and Deathbringer are best dragon parents. We've established that. And I figured Glory wouldn't really want dragonets because she wouldn't want to deal with all the lovely stuff that comes with having a Small One and being queen at the same time, but she just couldn't say no to that adorable face. ¯\\_ツ_/¯  
> Please comment and tell me how I did!


End file.
